A MOTORCYCLIST broke his neck after losing control and falling from his Vespa on the A30 at Egham, an inquest has heard.

Woking Coroner’s Court heard this week that father-of-three, Robert Adams, 42, had been travelling home to West Ealing from Wentworth Golf Club when the accident happened, shortly after 7pm on March 24.

The financial director’s wife, Emilie Lety-Adams, told coroner Dr Michael Burgess, that her husband had a history of fainting, particularly in hot weather and felt it could have been a contributing factor.

She told the coroner the 250cc bike was his main form of transport and that he had recently passed his advanced motorcycle riding test and been riding 13 to 14 years. On the day in question he had been having lunch with a colleague at the Virginia Water golf club.

Asked by the coroner if he might have been excessively hot that day, she said: “I am thinking that it might have been. It was a sunny day and he had been sitting on the terrace.”

The court heard Mr Adams had been over the alcohol limit, but Mrs Lety-Adams said her husband was a very large man who was “not the type to drink to get drunk”. Dr Burgess also asked if there was a suggestion the crash helmet may have caused him to overheat, to which she replied “possibly”.

Eyewitness Avtar Cholia was in a Vauxhall Astra travelling behind Mr Adams at the time. Reading from his witness statement, Dr Burgess said: “As I entered the slip road I saw the rear lights of a motorbike about 15 car lengths ahead.

“The scooter then started to veer towards the nearside very slowly, almost like the driver was falling asleep.

“The rider then hit the crash barrier at the back of the kerb.”

Mr Cholia attempted to speak to Mr Adams but got no response.

PC Carley Longstaff of Surrey Police’s collision investigation unit estimated the scooter’s speed at the point of impact to be between 23mph and 30mph and said it was likely Mr Adams had been too close to the kerb.

Surrey pathologist Dr Norman Ratcliffe confirmed the cause of death as being a fractured dislocation of the cervical spine.